Vegeta expected retribution or continued anger from the woman after the Buu incident, despite their heart to heart, despite her asking him to be her mate. But the only thing that changed was that he felt at peace, truly at peace, for the first time in his life. He could love her wholly, unabashedly, and he would do anything for her.
She seemed more at ease too, and when he started to grow wary that he was missing something, he decided to try simply asking her. They climbed into bed a few weeks after his Majin meltdown and he said, "Woman…are…are you still angry with me? Disappointed? I don't know how to make it up to you."
Her jaw dropped open. "Wow. Look at you, using your words. No, Vegeta, I'm not mad. I maybe should be. But…I don't know…when you blasted half a stadium, what I felt most keenly was how broken you still were. That all our years together hadn't mended the hurt of how hard your youth was. I was sad, of course, that you would still do something like that, but I could see in your eyes that you were…frenzied. That something was eating you alive. I thought it was all your dumb Goku bullshit, but then…then you told me. And you suck at lying. So I knew you meant it. It's hard to be mad when someone loves you so much they lose their shit upon finding out you're going to die. How you didn't know that before is still a mystery, but I'm glad Piccolo at least tries to civilize you in his own caustic way."
Vegeta scowled. "He does try. I'm resistant of course. I'm angry that Seventeen won't marry him. The poor man is so crestfallen, even though it seems that Seventeen intends to share his life. This marriage thing is shady. I don't like it. But I'll do it for you." He climbed above her and kissed her neck, down to the hollow at the base of her throat. He pressed his face into her breasts and breathed deeply of the perfect scent of his mate.
"Speaking of, I finalized a date and got a caterer lined up. There's a lot more to do, but my mom is gung-ho, so I'm going to let her tackle it while my dad and I finalize the transfer of Capsule Corp to me…"
The woman kept speaking, but Vegeta didn't care about the wedding or Capsule Corp. The only thing he cared about was naked on the bed beneath him. He pulled her nipple into his mouth, tonguing it and cupping her breast, and she laughed. "You're not listening to me even a little, are you?"
"I confess that you have my attention, but not with your words," Vegeta purred, moving to her other breast. He grazed his teeth on the soft skin. He sucked her nipple hard and trailed his hand down her smooth belly to her blue curls. "I could put my mouth to better use than apologizing…"
He kissed down over the pale skin of her abs, so soft and narrow compared to the hard, scarred ridges of his own, and dragged his tongue along the crease where her thigh met her hip. He kissed her lips softly, smelling her arousal. He licked the other leg's join and nibbled along the inside of her thigh to her knee. "Hmm, woman? Would you like me to keep talking?"
She chuckled and said, "No, now you've distracted me. You approach sex like you fight, you're relentless and strategic, always searching for weakness."
"And always getting defeated by someone superior. But I revel in it with you. You can best me any time, woman, and I'll love every second of it," Vegeta growled and opened his mouth over her sex. He gripped the inside of her thighs and spread his tongue wide on her clit, pulsing it there until she squirmed beneath him.
He teased her clit, dipped into her opening, and slowly brought her up. He didn't want to rush. He wanted to savor her every second for the rest of her life. He wanted to follow her into death when it came, but while they lived, he wanted to be his best for her. To take care of her. So he didn't rush. He licked her slowly, but firmly, and she gasped and clutched at him. Only once she started to beg did he slide two fingers inside her, pressing them toward her belly, finding the place that sent her spiraling into orgasm. She cried out and her legs clamped tight against his head, her fingers tugged at his hair, and she gasped, "Please, Vegeta, please, I want you inside me. Please!"
Vegeta moved up her body, taking her legs with him, and drove his cock inside the twitching, wet heat of her core. He groaned and kissed the inside of her knee where he held it over his shoulder. He rolled into her slowly at first, but his control waned and soon his hips snapped against her lush ass and her pussy gripped him and trembled.
She panted, "Fuck, I'm so close, Vegeta!"
Vegeta slid his thumb into her slick folds and found her clit, circled and pulsed. She screamed and the spasming of her core set him off. He spent himself deep inside her and curled down to kiss her while they still shivered through their aftershocks. "I love you, woman. My mate. My perfect mate."
"I love you too, bad man. I'm glad you're mine forever."
Piccolo's foot connected with Vegeta's face so hard even Piccolo cringed. "Oh shit, Bulma's gonna fucking kill me if that leaves a mark," the big Namek said and they halted their spar. "What the fuck? That move never works on you! Now I'm gonna get in trouble because you're being a moron!"
"I'm not a fucking moron! I'm…I'm…I'm distracted! I thought this whole…wedding…nonsense wouldn't stress me out. But it is stressing me out and I can't tell the woman because she's already overwhelmed. Gods. Fucking…parties." It was only a week until the wedding. Piccolo was right, the woman would murder him slowly if Vegeta's face was a swollen, purple mess. It felt like a mess. He prodded it and determined he'd had his chi high enough to avoid that.
Piccolo rolled his eyes and said, "Should we go get a drink? Since you're just letting me kick you in the fucking face, which can hardly be considered training."
Vegeta thought Piccolo looked extra morose that day. They trained most days since the whole Majin debacle, some days Trunks, Goten, and Gohan joined them. Now the big Namek's ears were laid almost all the way back, his scowl beyond even Vegeta levels. Vegeta said, "You don't look like you want to have a drink. You look like you want to keep kicking me in the fucking face."
Piccolo's ears somehow flattened even more and his nostrils flared. "You have nothing to do with it."
"Why do you look so fucking murderous then?"
Piccolo's eyes narrowed. "It doesn't matter."
Vegeta growled, "It obviously does!"
Piccolo deflated. Vegeta had hoped by this point in their friendship Piccolo wouldn't fight him on confessing his troubles. "I'm stressed about your stupid fucking wedding too! Seventeen…He said he won't come. He said weddings are bullshit all around." Piccolo's face collapsed further and he gave a heaving sigh. "I want to be there for you and Bulma, but the thought of not having him is…intimidating. I think Gohan's gonna propose to Videl too, and then I'll have to go to that. It's…Fine, okay, fine, fuck! It's making me sad! There! Happy!?"
"Why would I be fucking happy that my best friend is miserable? You don't have to come, Piccolo, I'll be alright. I understand."
Piccolo shook his head and they flew toward the dive they sometimes drank at after training. Vegeta didn't dare point out that it was noon. Piccolo's despair was palpable. Vegeta and Panchy had brainstormed at their last "book club" how they could remedy Seventeen's recalcitrance about marrying Piccolo. They came up empty, but Panchy had hoped Vegeta and Bulma's wedding might provide an impetus for Seventeen.
Piccolo waved his hand and they were both in jeans and t-shirts, their tattered, dirty training clothes gone in a flash of magic.
Vegeta said, "I'll never get used to that."
Piccolo grunted, strutted to the bar, and joined Vegeta at their usual corner booth with shots and pints. Vegeta's eyebrows shot up. Piccolo rarely got inebriated and Vegeta was still a lightweight. Vegeta quickly texted the woman, Piccolo is in a mood, will be drunk soon, apologies for however that manifests.
He received laughing emojis and then, I hope it manifests with you fucking me into a coma.
A snort of laughter escaped Vegeta. Piccolo threw back his shot. Considered. Got up. Returned with a line of three more. Vegeta warily said, "Do you think that's wise?"
Three shots disappeared too fast for a human to see. Vegeta girded himself. He wasn't the only weepy drunk amongst the Z-Fighters, as Gohan insisted on calling them. Piccolo's head fell back and he groaned, "Why won't he just marry me? He loves me. I believe him. I don't know why or anything, but he's endured me this long."
Vegeta started to try to answer but Piccolo flapped an enormous hand at him. "Don't answer that. Fuck it. Why you worried 'bout ceremony? You don' have 'em on that place…your place…Vegeta-sei. That place. No…thingy…for love?" Piccolo slurred. Piccolo's metabolism, like Vegeta's, meant they were often drunk within minutes of downing hard liquor. Piccolo took Vegeta's shot before Vegeta could stop him and tossed it back too. Chugged his beer.
He reached for Vegeta's pint, but Vegeta seized his wrist. "Enough, I don't want to hold your hair back while you puke."
Piccolo looked at him blearily for a moment and then his face split in a giant fang-bearing smile as he cackled. "'Kay. 'Kay. I'm fine. Tell me 'bout 'Geta-sei stuff."
"Well…The physical act of mating is the most important part on Vegeta-sei, not any ceremony, so I wish Earth was like that with a great deal of fucking—"
"Don' worry. You do that. That's a thing. But after. They call it…" Piccolo tapped his chin. His antennae drooped he was so drunk. "Honeymoon. Have a honeymoon. Just…just all fuckin'. I guess humans maybe can't. Get tired and probably break their pelvises and shit."
"What?" Vegeta said. This was the first he'd heard of such a thing.
"Jus' go someplace nice and fuck and enjoy each other. Jus' two. Jus' love," Piccolo slurred and his head thumped forward onto his folded arms. "I wanna have honeymoon."
"I am sorry he's being an asshole—"
"Don' call my boyfrien' an asshole!" Piccolo's head popped up and his face looked so wounded that Vegeta felt bad.
He had more sympathy for the woman dealing with him when drunk. Usually when Piccolo got drunk, Vegeta was drunk too. Occasionally they were despondent-drunk together, but more often they got to giggling and making fun of the other fighters. Piccolo had come to book club with Panchy a few times and that was always entertaining. Panchy could drink both of them so far under the table they had to dig a hole.
"Alright, alright. On Vegeta-sei, you physically mate, you claim one another and after that, there's a small ceremony to publicly declare each other your chosen one. She would have worn royal armor like my mother's, and I would wear mine, and I would get to wear a cape. This planet is fucking uncivilized—no gloves, no capes."
"Tell me 'bout the private part. Maybe Seventeen will let me claim him," Piccolo slurred, his hand creeping toward Vegeta's beer. Vegeta downed it to eliminate temptation.
"I won't tell you in detail, I know from my accidental voyeurism that you two know how to fuck. But when you're fucking, at some point the urge to mark your mate becomes undeniable, you bite them, come inside them, and they have the desire to bite back. In the case of same-sex couples, there's more variability in who comes where, but I have heard that the bite itself is…pleasant. In any case, she would then bite me back in the mirrored location and we would be joined. Saiyans tail-twine when they mate, or if they mate with other species, they wrap their tail around a thigh or arm. I…I haven't spoken to her about this. Humans are so squeamish about anything…animal."
"Bet Bulma would bite the fuck out of you. Oh gods, I can't even…Biting Seventeen. Not…not gonna think 'bout that."
Vegeta pitied his big friend and strongly considered slapping some sense into Seventeen. Piccolo slumped on the table and said, "Can you get me 'nother drink?"
"No."
"Fucker."
"Indeed."
Piccolo excused himself to go to the bathroom, but before Vegeta could stop him, acquired three more shots. Once he weaved his way back to their table, he prodded Vegeta more about mating customs on Vegeta-sei. Vegeta was fine with it. It seemed to be keeping Piccolo from losing his shit completely or from drinking more, and that was a good thing. Vegeta's heart ached thinking about his planet, how long it had been since he'd felt like a true Saiyan. Saiyan royalty, at that. But he shook his head. He wouldn't change anything. The woman was better than any crown.
Piccolo drank more against Vegeta's advice and moped most of the afternoon. Eventually, he fell asleep on the table and Vegeta lugged him back to his home on Seventeen's island. Seventeen's eyes widened when Vegeta showed up with Piccolo draped over his shoulder in civilian clothes.
"Dare I ask? Did you knock him out? He's been distracted training lately and I worried he'd get hurt—"
"He's just drunk," Vegeta said, his voice cold and hard. He knew raging at Seventeen would only earn Piccolo's wrath and wouldn't help. Yet he wanted to kick the shit out of the android.
"It's three in the afternoon! Why is he drunk? What the hell, Vegeta?" Seventeen carefully took Piccolo from him. The lithe little man looked absurd holding the behemoth like a bride, but he kissed Piccolo's forehead, and Vegeta's desire to blast him diminished some. Piccolo snored.
"Don't blame me! He's a fucking adult! And besides, it's…Fuck! Never mind. Take care of him." Vegeta launched into the air.
Seventeen shouted, "Why did you let him get this wasted if you're his friend? He'll have a hangover!"
"Oh please, you know as well as I do that there's no stopping that man when he decides to do something foolish."
"He is wonderfully stubborn." Seventeen smiled fondly at Piccolo and nuzzled him again.
Piccolo stirred. He grinned and muttered, "Hi, baby. Got drunk. Night."
Seventeen waved Vegeta off. Vegeta flew home to his love and his son, grateful he and the woman had straightened out their differences in customs. He understood Seventeen's reticence about this marriage nonsense, Vegeta was wary of it too, but he would do anything for the woman. And he would be fine without claiming her. She wasn't Saiyan. He didn't want to hurt her and he didn't know how the bite would affect a human anyway. It would be fine. As if in answer, Vegeta's teeth and tail-scar throbbed, but he ignored them. He would ignore anything to make the woman happy.
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